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TMDB’s search puts millions of titles and people at your fingertips. Whether you remember only a fragment of a film’s name, want to explore every project an actor has appeared in, or need to locate a niche foreign-language series by its original title, search handles it all in real time. Results appear as you type, and a full results page gives you fine-grained control over what you see.
For the most accurate results, try the following techniques:
  • Use partial titles — searching “god” will surface “The Godfather”, “Godfather of Harlem”, and more. You do not need to type the full title.
  • Search original titles — foreign films and shows are indexed under both their localized and original titles. If an English translation isn’t returning results, try the title in its original language (for example, “Parasite” works, but so does “기생충”).
  • Search by character name — some films are indexed with popular character names as keywords, so “Iron Man” will surface both the character and the films.
  • Name order doesn’t matter — searching “Nolan Christopher” returns the same results as “Christopher Nolan”.
1

Open the search bar

Click the search icon in the top navigation bar, or press / on your keyboard from any page to bring the search bar into focus.
2

Type your query

Begin typing a movie title, TV show name, or person’s name. TMDB displays instant suggestions in a dropdown as you type, showing the top matches across all content types. You can click any suggestion to go directly to that title or person’s page.
3

Submit for full results

Press Enter or click the search icon to submit your query and open the full results page. This page shows every match across movies, TV shows, and people, sorted by relevance.
4

Filter by content type

Use the Movies, TV Shows, and People filter tabs at the top of the results page to narrow results to a single content type. The count next to each tab shows how many matches exist in that category.
5

Explore a result

Click any result card to open its detail page. Movie and TV show cards show the poster, title, release year, and TMDB score. People cards show the profile photo, name, and the role they are best known for.

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Searching for movies

Movie search matches against titles, alternate titles, and release years. When you search for a film, results are ranked by relevance and popularity. Each result card shows:
  • Poster image — the official or most-used promotional poster
  • Title — the localized title for your region
  • Release year — the year of theatrical release or first availability
  • TMDB score — the community vote average out of 10, displayed as a percentage
  • Overview snippet — a short excerpt from the film’s synopsis
If a title has multiple versions (for example, an original film and a remake), both appear as separate entries with their respective release years so you can tell them apart at a glance.

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Searching for TV shows

TV show search works the same way as movie search but surfaces series instead of films. Results show the show’s poster, title, first air year, and TMDB score. Shows that share a name with a movie (for example, adaptations) are clearly separated when you filter results to TV Shows only. To find a specific season or episode, first navigate to the show’s detail page from the search results, then use the season selector to drill down further.

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Searching for people

People search covers actors, directors, writers, producers, composers, and other crew members credited on TMDB. Results display a profile photo (when available), the person’s name, and the department or role they are most associated with — for example, “Acting” or “Directing”. Clicking a person card opens their full profile page, which includes a biography, birthdate, known-for credits, and a complete filmography broken out by job role.

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How results are displayed

The full results page organizes matches into three sections: Movies, TV Shows, and People. By default, all three sections are visible. The filter tabs at the top let you focus on one type at a time. Results within each section are sorted by a combination of text relevance and TMDB popularity score, so the most well-known matching title appears first. Less popular but exact-match titles still surface — they just rank lower than major releases with the same or similar names.